SECRETARIA DE FOMENTO, COLONIZACION, E INDUSTRIA. 
(SECRETARIAT OF ENCOURAGEMENT, COLONIZATION, AND INDUSTRY.) 
The Secretaria de Fomento is located in the Mineria building. Permission 
to consult the archives is secured through the ministro de fomento. 
Until 1853 the supervision of colonization and other functions now dis- 
charged by this secretariat were performed first by one and then by another 
department of government, but more particularly by the secretariats of For- 
eign Relations and Interior. By the “ Bases” of Apr. 22, 1853, there was 
created the Secretaria de Fomento, Colonizacion, Industria, y Comercio. The 
principal duties assigned to it at the time were the formation of general 
statistics of industry, agriculture, mining, and commerce, the supervision of 
colonization, the encouragement (fomento) of all branches of industry 
(whence the name of the secretariat), the issuance of patents, the conduct of 
scientific explorations, the management of roads, canals, and public works, 
and the drainage of the city of Mexico. At the same time the Direccion de 
Industria y Colonizacion and several other special direcciones were sup- 
pressed.’ As organized in 1861 the secretariat was composed of five sections, 
namely, (1) Geografia y Estadistica, (2) Comercio, Industria, Agricultura y 
Mineria, (3) Contabilidad, (4) Colonizacion y Terrenos Baldios, and (5) 
Facultativo y Obras Publicas.” By decrees of Apr. 6 and Dec. 16, 1861, the 
department was combined with that of Justice in the Secretaria de Justicia, 
Fomento, é Instruccion Publica, the department of Fomento becoming a 
section of the secretariat.” But under the Intervention the Secretaria de 
Fomento was restored, the five sections having as their principal duties the 
charge of (1) geography and statistics, (2) industry, agriculture, and ex- 
positions, (3) communication [mails, telegraphs, land transportation, etc. ], 
(4) colonization, unappropriated lands, and tax roll [catastro|, (5) public 
works, navigation of rivers and canals.* 
The archives of interest for our purposes, so far as discovered by the writer, 
are the Archivo General and Seccion de Cartografia. For the reasons indi- 
cated above, the early papers of the archives have come from various other 
secretariats and departments. 
THE ARCHIVO GENERAL, 
The two departments of the Secretariat of Fomento of most interest to 
students of the history of the United States, except for recent times, are the 
Archivo General and the Seccién de Cartografia. The Archivo General is 
regularly open from 9 to 1 in the morning, and from 4 to 6 in the afternoon. 
The archive is arranged in “ branches ” (ramos), the papers of each being 
filed in boxes (cajas) or in bundles. Those in cajas are well classified and 
indexed, the inventory or indice for each caja being filed in the caja with the 
papers. The ramos of the archive of primary importance for the history of 
*Dublan y Lozano, VI. 366. 
* Tbid., IX. 15. 
* [bid., 139, 235, 337, 354- 
ee imetic para el Régimen Interior de la Secretaria de Fomento, Sept. 16, 1865, 
pp. 3-6. a1) 
